Erlestoke Golf Course: 29th November and 4th December 2017 (Visits 4 and 5).

The feeders continue to be productive and we have now processed a further 61 birds. The first Goldfinches are showing interest in the niger seed, but only a single bird was netted. Two more Great Spotted Woodpeckers joined the total and on the fifth visit a tape lure for Goldcrests proved its worth with five birds appearing seemingly from nowhere in the first ten minutes!

Finally details of our first control have arrived. A Blue Tit, ringed at Hannington, Swindon in March 2017, recovered at Erlestoke on the 4th November. Out of the 36 Blue Tit recoveries for Wiltshire since 2006, at 45 Km, this is the shared longest movement equalling one from Hens Wood to Wytham Great Wood in May this year.